Former minister in first court defense

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Mehmet Ağar, the former leader of the True Path Party, or DYP, entered the 2007 general elections but failed to pass the 10 percent election threshold necessary for deputies to be elected to Parliament.

Ağar served as both the police chief and then later the interior minister in the 1990s. The Susurluk accident in November 1996, when a right-wing mafia leader, a police chief and a former beauty queen died and a parliamentarian was severely injured, caused a major investigation. The Susurluk scandal showed illicit links between the mafia, police and politicians, and İbrahim Şahin’s anti-terrorism squad within the police department was also implicated.

Şahin was appointed by Ağar. Şahin was convicted of forming and heading a criminal gang in 2000 and then pardoned due to medical reasons in 2002. Korkut Eken, a member of the National Intelligence Agency, or MİT, was also convicted of leading the gang.

Şahin was arrested late last year over links with the alleged Ergenekon gang.

The Ergenekon case started after the discovery of 27 hand grenades in June 2007 in a shanty house in Istanbul's Ümraniye district that belonged to a retired noncommissioned officer. The investigation later led to the arrest of scores of people, including retired and serving military officers, top police officers and politicians.

Both cases are based on the alleged existence of the so-called "deep state."

Ağar accompanied Eken to jail when the former MİT officer was found guilty and Eken yesterday accompanied Ağar to court. In court, Ağar defended both Eken and Şahin and their contribution to Turkey’s anti-terrorism efforts.

He said he did not personally know Abdullah Çatlı, a known right-wing militant and mafia boss who died in the Susurluk crash.Among the charges he faces are knowing where Çatlı was but not reporting it to authorities and providing passports to known criminals.He said he had served the state and asked the court to find him not guilty on all counts. The trial will continue May 13.

A group of protestors, including members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, and some leftist organizations, were in front of the court calling on Ağar to "pay for his crimes." Ağar’s lawyers released a statement, dismissing the claims made against their client, stating that he, both as a politician and a public servant, had performed his responsibilities by respecting the letter of the law.